Aquí tenemos unos textos en inglés que te enseñarán un poco de vocabulario y gramática.
Leer es una muy buena forma de aprender un idioma…
Se aprende mucha gramática viendo cómo se usan los tiempos verbales y otras estructuras, y al leer un texto o artículo en inglés casi siempre te encuentras con alguna expresión o phrasal verb interesante.
De momento tengo cuatro textos en inglés aquí, para estudiantes de nivel básico. Y al final del artículo, también tengo unas sugerencias sobre dónde leer más.
¿Preparado?
Texto en inglés: el pasado simple
Este texto habla del fin de semana pasado en la vida de una persona. La mayoría del texto es pasado simple, pero hay un par de frases también en presente simple.
Si quieres escuchar el texto en pasado simple, está aquí en el video:
Y si por algún motivo no ves el video arriba, pincha para YouTube.
Aquí el texto por escrito:
I had a great weekend. On Friday afternoon, I finished work at 5 PM. I went home and took a shower. Then I went to see a couple of my friends at a bar downtown.
We had a couple of beers and a nice talk.
Tom told us about his new job, and Jim told us about his new girlfriend. After a while, we went to a restaurant and had pizza. I went to bed late that night, but I was very happy.
On Saturday morning I went running in the park. I ran 5 kilometers, and then came home.
After that, I met my girlfriend for lunch. We went to a Thai restaurant near my house. I love Thai food!
I spent the evening with my girlfriend, watching TV on the sofa.
The next day, I got up and caught the train to my parents’ town. I usually go to see my parents on Sundays, at least twice a month.
My mom usually makes a roast, and we go for a walk in the park or in the country after lunch.
This weekend was a bit different, though. My parents took me out for a nice lunch, because it was my birthday. After lunch, we took a walk (as usual) and then I caught the train back to London.
Now it’s Monday and I’m back at work, but I’ve got big plans for next weekend!
Si quieres más, véase Bob’s life in London o bien otro texto en pasado simple dentro de mi curso de inglés básico.
Y para más sobre el pasado, echa un vistazo a la lista de verbos irregulares.
De momento, seguimos con otro texto sobre la familia…
Texto en inglés: Shawn’s Family
Este texto es sobre un chico que se llama Shawn y su familia, que vive en Inglaterra.
Si quieres repasar un poco de vocabulario antes, tengo un artículo sobre los miembros de la familia.
Este texto lo puedes escuchar como podcast en Spotify, aquí…
Shawn’s family is not very big.
His mother and father live in a flat in London. His father works in an insurance company, and his mother is a nurse. She works for the National Health Service.
Shawn shares a flat with two friends and works in a restaurant. He’s a waiter. He has two sisters, Lucy and Millie, who live together in Southampton.
Shawn has a girlfriend, and Lucy has a boyfriend, but Millie is single.
Shawn’s girlfriend’s name is Maria, and she’s Italian. She moved to the UK to study English a few years ago, and then stayed. She works in a café near Piccadilly Circus.
Shawn’s in love with Maria, and he also really likes her dog. He loves going for long walks in the park with Maria and her dog.
Since they’ve been going out for over a year, Shawn’s thinking of asking Maria to move in with him. Rent prices are high in London, and they could save a lot of money by living together.
On the weekends, Lucy and Millie come to London and the whole family has lunch together. Sometimes their aunts and uncles come, too.
Shawn’s grandparents are very old, and they live in a small cottage in Plymouth. They’re his mother’s parents. They’re retired, and spend most of their time gardening, walking and having tea with their friends.
His father’s parents died years ago. They used to live in Brixton, in South London. Shawn doesn’t remember much about them.
Once a year, Shawn goes to spend some time with his grandparents in Plymouth. His grandmother makes excellent fruit pies.
Sometimes, his sisters or his cousins come, too, and they all have a great time.
On holidays, Shawn goes to Italy and they stay with Maria’s parents in Rome. He loves Rome, and he loves Italian food, but he doesn’t like staying with his in-laws.
He doesn’t speak much Italian, and they don’t speak any English, so it’s a bit difficult to communicate.
In the future, Shawn hopes to find time to learn more Italian.
Aparte de los miembros de la familia, tienes un par de cosas más en el texto: quizá te interesa saber más sobre “used to” o bien trabajos y profesiones en inglés.
Seguimos, con un texto que utiliza muchas expresiones con el verbo get.
Texto en inglés: Usos comunes del verbo GET
Quizá sabes que el verbo get tiene muchos significados. Tengo unos artículos por aquí si quieres repasar: 24 ejemplos del verbo GET y también formas causativas – get your hair cut.
Aquí tienes un texto que utiliza muchas expresiones con el verbo get.
Es un poco exagerado usar 20 expresiones con get así en un texto tan breve, pero la verdad es que es un verbo que utilizamos mucho, y sin pensarlo.
Yesterday I got up at 8:30 in the morning. After I made some coffee, I got dressed and went to the bank because I had to pay the rent. The bank is only a couple blocks away, so I got there in a few minutes. There wasn’t a long line when I got in, so I paid the rent and left.
Afterwards I went to the butcher’s to get some meat. I also stopped at the market to get some tomatoes. I wanted to make pasta. When I got home I wrote a couple of emails.
After a while I started getting hungry, so I decided to get to work on lunch. I put the tomatoes in a pot to cook with the meat, and I put some water on to boil.
After a while the water got hot and I put in the pasta. I cooked it for a few minutes and then sat down to eat.
After lunch, I drank some more coffee and then got ready for work. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to work from where I live.
I was at work for a few hours, on Fridays I only give 2 classes.
I got off work at 8:30 and went to my girlfriend’s house. We went to drink a beer in her neighborhood. I was getting very hungry, so when I got home I made some fried eggs. After that I did some reading and went to sleep.
The end.
Si quieres aprender más sobre cómo usar el verbo get, tengo artículos sobre get around, get off, get used to y probablemente más.
Texto con comparativo y superlativo en inglés
Aquí usamos muchos ejemplos del comparativo y el superlativo en inglés.
Te recuerdo que el comparativo se usa para comparar dos cosas (bigger, better, more expensive) y el superlativo se usa para comparar una cosa con toda una categoría (the biggest, the best, the most expensive).
También hay un par de ejemplos del comparativo de igualdad ahí, que se forma con as … as.
Mary’s Problem
Mary wants a change in her life.
She’s not sure what to do, though. She’s thinking of looking for a better job, but she’s not sure if she’ll find one.
She’s also thinking of moving. Now she lives in London, but she’s thinking of moving to Barcelona. In her mind, Barcelona is much more beautiful than London. And of course, the weather is better: it’s sunnier and warmer in Spain than it is in the UK.
On the other hand, salaries in Spain are much lower. If she moves, she’ll be making less money.
She’s not sure what to do. The cost of living in Spain would definitely be lower – rent and food would be less expensive. And going out would be much cheaper, too.
Another problem is her boyfriend. Mary’s boyfriend doesn’t want to move to Spain. He likes living in the UK, and he doesn’t want to learn Spanish. Sometimes Mary wishes that her boyfriend were more adventurous. But she loves him, and this is the longest relationship she’s ever been in.
For now, Mary’s working at her job in an accounting firm. It’s not the best job in the world, but it’s okay. When she studied accounting, she thought it would be more interesting. She’s considered going back to school to study something more exciting, but she’s not as young as she used to be. Maybe she doesn’t have time.
In the end, she doesn’t know what to do. Maybe she’ll ask her mother. Her mother always gives the best life advice. If only she didn’t live so far away in Scotland!
¿Quieres más textos en inglés?
Ahora mismo no tengo más textos en inglés, pero los pondré aquí cuando los escriba.
De momento, piensa en comprar mi libros de la serie Inglés Básico, que contienen muchos sencillos textos y audios para aprender puntos importantes de la gramática y el vocabulario – tiempos verbales, phrasal verbs y mucho más.
También recomiendo (si tienes más nivel) un sitio que se llama The Times in Plain English, que tiene noticias adaptadas para estudiantes de inglés.
Y si estás para empezar con libros adaptados o novelas completas, tengo un artículo en mi otra página: ¿Qué libro debería leer?
Buen aprendizaje,
Daniel.
P.D. Para más, suscríbete a mis lecciones por correo. Recibirás 2 o 3 lecciones nuevas por semana, y es gratis. También ofertas en mis libros y cursos, y mucho más: Sí, quiero aprender más inglés.